Per Mertesacker is entrusted with the job of collecting fines from Arsenal players in breach of club discipline but the German may find himself going cap in hand to manager Arsene Wenger for his place in the team.

Patrick Barclay: Luke Shaw likely to follow Ashley Cole as a world class left back

There are times, to paraphrase Ashley Cole, when the whole world must seem like a #BUNCHOFT***S.

Not this time. This time, the icy phrase once used by Roy Hodgson in case of another ageing England worthy — “football reasons” obliged Rio Ferdinand to concentrate on Manchester United — has ended the international career of one of the country’s finest left-backs ever.

Although it is understandable that Cole wanted to make a clean break rather than be one of Hodgson’s standby players, hovering over the training pitch like a vulture with eyes only for Leighton Baines and Luke Shaw in case they tweaked hamstrings, it would have been better that he stayed with the squad. Who knows where the fickle finger of 11th-hour fitness will point?

But, after 107 caps and three World Cups, the 33-year-old was entitled to go at a time of his choosing. The choice, of course, was guided by Hodgson’s bold preference for Shaw.

Shaw is a player of such potential that some observers, accepting the likelihood of Baines being first choice in Brazil and noting Cole’s excellence on his recent return to the Chelsea team, wanted the manager to take three left-backs. But Hodgson kept a clear head. He had seen in Shaw something special and caught the mood to ride a wave of exciting youth.

It is quite difficult to hype Shaw. When up against him, wide attackers cannot wholly concentrate on their own game because he is forever on the front foot, like a latter-day Roberto Carlos, never more comfortable than when crossing the halfway line in the aggressive direction. At the same time he is seldom caught out of position and here carries echoes of the greatest of all left-backs, Paolo Maldini.

At times you wondered, watching the young Maldini, if he’d been born with an understanding of the game — his father, Cesare, had captained the Milan side who won the 1962-63 European Cup at Wembley — and he remained a walking masterclass even after collecting his fifth European title in 2007 at the age of nearly 41.

If Shaw, who is believed to be joining Manchester United this summer — much to Chelsea’s regret — as a fine Southampton side breaks up before it has peaked, turns out to be even half as fine a player as Maldini, he will be an England asset for at least as many years as Cole, who was given his full international debut by Sven-Goran Eriksson at just 20.

Maldini was 19 when he made his tournament debut, featuring in all four of Italy’s matches at the 1988 European Championship.

Shaw, a year younger, may start on the bench in Brazil, given the consistency Baines has displayed since Hodgson took over two years ago.

But the manager has clearly seen enough in the teenager’s one appearance, as substitute for Cole against Denmark, to be sure he can be trusted in the heat of a competition which England kick off against the Italians in 33 days’ time.

It’s impressive management and will delight those who feel that England have sometimes neglected the need in international football always to be looking forward.

The Germans embraced this in the last World Cup, placing reliance on the likes of Mesut Ozil, Thomas Muller and Sami Khedira.

But to neglect a salute for Cole would be remiss. He will be remembered as the best England left-back most have seen — though I recall enough of Crystal Palace and Arsenal’s Kenny Sansom to counsel against depiction of a one-horse race.

Graeme le Saux, though he could be as exciting in attack, did not get back to defend with such skill and alacrity.

Only a very few world masters of his generation, led by Maldini, put Cole in the shade.

You could call him a world-class English player — and that’s a very special phrase.

How Louis Van Gaal once took a punt on Jose Mourinho after deciding he had what it takes to become a special one

When Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho, whom the Dutchman had taken under his wing at Barcelona, finally encountered each other at the highest level of European competition, it was the pupil who defeated the master.

Two goals from Diego Milito gave Mourinho’s Inter victory over Van Gaal’s Bayern Munich in the Champions League Final four years ago. But soon Van Gaal will have an opportunity to equalise in the Premier League, for this week he is expected to make a flying visit to Manchester from Holland’s World Cup training camp to be confirmed as United’s manager. Mourinho may be reminded of the circumstances in which he took over a Barcelona squad featuring Pep Guardiola and Hristo Stoichkov. It was in 1997 and Van Gaal, having apparently been hired to look after youth development while Sir Bobby Robson continued with the first team, became the beneficiary of an enforced job swap.

According to Van Gaal, Robson reacted with dignity — but Mourinho with anger. He had worked with Robson at Sporting Lisbon and Porto, initially as an interpreter, and viewed the Englishman’s treatment by Barcelona with such distaste that he resolved to quit.

“He was due to go anyway,” Van Gaal recalled, “because I had arranged to bring my assistants from Ajax with me.” But Van Gaal needed linguistic help in meetings with senior club officials and, during those talks, became so impressed with Mourinho’s personality that he decided to retain him as third assistant, behind Gerard van der Lem and Frans Hoek.

The club officials, who had got into the habit of airily referring to Mourinho as El Traductor [The Translator], agreed with some reluctance.

But Van Gaal, like Robson, swiftly came to appreciate the young man’s coaching ability and within a year Mourinho was working with the first team. “I am a believer in ball possession and positional play,” Van Gaal said, “so we do a lot of positional play in a session. Then you can see if someone can really coach. And he could.”

Mourinho even found himself in charge for friendly matches and Catalan Cup ties — Van Gaal was much more of a delegator than Robson — and the experience stood him in good stead for the career that followed: Benfica, Leiria, Porto, and you know the rest.

A little more graciousness, then, might have been expected when he first arrived at Chelsea and, asked if he would go back to Portugal to raid his former club, suggested that such comforts were a sign of weakness or lack of adventure, as in the case of Van Gaal and the Dutch players he kept taking to Barcelona: “It’s like a boy who goes on holiday with his parents all the time…”

Within a few weeks Mourinho had signed Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira from Porto — and tried for Deco — while bringing Tiago from Benfica. So maybe he and Van Gaal are not as different as either thinks; Van Gaal has never hidden their differences in terms of football philosophy, pointing out Mourinho’s disdain for his own core belief that the public must be entertained.

Now it may be up to Ryan Giggs (right) to decide what he wants to take from Van Gaal. The word is that Giggs will be offered a meaningful job in the new regime. What an education it could be, this prospective icing of a cake already provided by proximity to Sir Alex Ferguson for so long. And what a preparation for the future.

Another encouraging noise emerging from Old Trafford is that the unlucky David Moyes’s biggest mistake may be rectified by Van Gaal, who is said to be considering the reappointment of Rene Meulensteen, the most hands-on coach of the late Ferguson era. And there’s money, lots of it. None of which is good news for Mourinho and the others jealously guarding their top-four status — however you translate it.